Milan Mary
by poppy.ryder
Summary: A modern day re-telling of Jane Eyre.


Milan Mary

A modern day Jane Eyre

Chapter 1

Buckinghamshire, 1997

"Come on Milan, its Crawford's 15th birthday" said her cousin's Chinese Au Pair, Wu Cheung who was waking her up.

Milan went down the stairs and Crawford was opening his presents.

He received a Playstation, a television for his bedroom, a remote control car, a foot long chocolate bar, and a BMX bike.

But then he had a tantrum because his grandmother sent him £300 instead of £500.

"Its okay, my dear boy" said Edwina his mother who was comforting him.

Milan had knitted a scarf with "St. Martins Boy's Grammar School" the name of his private school on it.

"Thank you, cousin" he said really sarcastically.

Milan had lived with her wealthy aunt Edwina Darcy-Fitzroy all her life. Her aunt and her cousins hated her. This was because Milan's mother married a man who Edwina did not like she thought he was too common, as he had gone to a State School and his job was a builder.

Milan's parent's died in a plane crash on their way home from a holiday in Morocco to celebrate their wedding anniversary. However afterwards Milan was left in the care of her aunt.

Edwina was married to Milan's maternal uncle, however he died of a brain hemorrhage in 1990.

Chapter 2

Later in the day Crawford was taken out to the Ritz for afternoon tea, so Milan was forced to stay at home. When they had all gone out she decided to put on a video of Toy Story, as she was a little bored.

Milan knew she wasn't supposed to watch the Video's but nobody would notice surely.

However that night Crawford wanted to watch James Bond, meaning he would have to get the last Video out.

"Who was watching Toy Story?" he barked.

"None of us" his sister's Felicity and Ellen shook their heads.

"I don't watch children's films and I never time for television anyway," said Wu.

"It was you wasn't it, Milan," he said strangling her, Wu didn't see as her back was turned.

"What have I told you? How dare you teach my Video's" he fumed.

"I am really sorry" Milan wept struggling for air once her cousin stopped strangling her.

She then punched him in the stomach and so then called Edwina.

"What is it, Crawford darling?" she asked him.

"Milan punched me in the stomach" he cried like an infant.

"You are going to sleep in the cellar, Milan" Edwina told her.

Wu took her down there and immediately locked the door once she was outside.

Milan hated it in the cellar because it was dark, damp and full of creepy crawlies. She cried herself to sleep and was frightened something would be lurking in the corner.

The next morning Milan came out.

The Darcy-Fitzroy's had just got back from their photo shoot as a family, Milan wasn't allowed to go as she was not considered part of the family.

However Edwina had some news for her niece.

"Milan, you're going to go to boarding school," she told her. I have just had enough of you" Edwina huffed.

"I am not sad you know because you have abused and failed to love me, all of you have" Milan told her.

"How dare you lie to me?"

Milan said nothing back.

Milan picked up a brochure that read: Henry Abbot's Ladies College est. 1652.

It had a picture on the front of a few sixth form age girls wearing traditional public school uniform.

She was looking forward to it, a brand new fresh start.

Milan hated her current school, Crown Victoria Girls School.

She was forever teased because her uniform was dirty and everyone said she stank. This was down to Edwina rationing her use of the shower, which was once a week and not bothering to giving her clothes like she did with her own children, to the maid who would then wash them.

Chapter 3

On my first day at Henry Abbots the head teacher John Abbot who was a descendant of the original head gave me this look and said "Don't act all angelic in front of me little Milan, your Aunt has told me what you are really like".

As he had been told I was a naughty child I had to spend a night sleeping on my own in an old attic and when I came out this girl gave me a chocolate bar because I'd had nothing to eat.

I was given a tour round and shown my room, which I would share with a girl who was two years older than myself, called Juliana.

Juliana was a girl with Down syndrome. She was mixed race with dark skin and brown curly hair tied up in two pigtails.

"Hello I am Juliana Kensington-Harper. What's your name?"

"Milan Mary. Mary is my surname by the way"

"Oh isn't Milan a city in France?" she asked.

"I think it's in Italy, but I don't know where my mother got the name from" I said.

"Oh in Italy they speak Spanish and isn't that where Greeks are from"

"Maybe" I said not wanting to correct her on her poor knowledge.

"I came here when I was four, mummy didn't like me"

"Yes but just because your different it does not mean that your parent's can't love you"

"Well mummy had this clothing line for children Angina's Wardrobe"

"Oh that's terrible. I never met my parents, they died when I was a baby and my mother left me in the care of my Aunt" I told her.

At Henry Abbot's I enjoyed all my lessons. I painted the school building in Impressionist style for Art, was dazzled by the experiments we did in Science, would read my books from History lessons for hours even in my free time, flied through worksheets in Math's and loved getting lots of energy in PE.

I did not like our teacher Miss. Hawking so much. She was a middle aged unmarried woman who was very tall and skinny with a grey bun on her head, little round granny glasses and always wore the same white blouse with a long black skirt everyday.

She was always very miserable, stern and had a loud high-pitched voice. She was always very unkind to Juliana; she would often mock her disability.

Juliana should have been two years above myself but because of her learning difficulties she was held back two years.

But one night in January there was a poison gas leak coming from the kitchen that spread to several rooms, which then killed several girls.

Thankfully I was a survivor but it was depressing to see so many girls gone.

There were only 150 pupils who were alive that were left in the school now but most of whom were taken home until the gas leak was repaired. When it was repaired the Summer Holidays came up and everyone was away anyway.

It was just Juliana and myself left over during the holidays.

One night I was struggling to get to sleep and Juliana was in her bed having a seizure.

I was so frightened I immediately ran to Miss. Hawking's room, as she was the only teacher in school left to look after those who hadn't gone home for the summer.

"Miss. Hawking" I screamed banging on her door.

She came and opened the door wearing a black silk dressing gown saying "what is it child?"

"Juliana is having a seizure" I panicked.

"Oh go back to bed, she is probably just wanting a bit of attention as usual," she said rolling her dull grey eyes.

"But Juliana is epileptic, if she has a seizure it means that it could be very serious"

"But Juliana is epileptic, if she has a seizure it means that it could be very serious" she laughed making fun of me.

"You mean old witch," I screamed at her.

"Oh all right I will come and see if I have to. How dare you talk to me like the way you have done" she shouted.

But when we got back to the room, Juliana was dead.

I immediately burst into tears but Miss. Hawking just told me to get back to bed and stop crying like a baby.

Chapter 4

In 1998 the school moved down the road to a bigger more modern building. John Abbot also retired that year and in 2000 so did Miss. Hawking. The school broke from the tradition of the role of head teacher that would originally mean the oldest son or if he had no sons the eldest child would become the next head teacher.

John Abbot who had been an only child had no children of his own anyway.

A young former governor of the school Miss. Dove became headmistress instead. She was a lot nicer than Mr. Abbott and she changed the schools name to the School of Life.

"What do you want to do when you leave school, Milan?" she asked me.

"Be a teacher," I told her.

"That's wonderful"

When I left in 2006, I went to teacher training college; I finished there in 2009. In the spring of 2010 as a trained teacher I had a letter from a wealthy Iraqi Oil Sheikh named Mohammad Abaza who lived in the Scottish Highlands at Whittington Manor with a young girl Abal Pierre who was eight.

I thought it strange that he lived with this girl, was she his daughter, niece or what. But he wanted me to home school his daughter and become her tutor.

But I decided to accept the offer.

Chapter 5

I saved all my money for a train ticket and when I arrived in April the housekeeper Miss. Fine greeted me.

"You must be so hungry and tired" she said to me.

"I am a little"

"Well we will give you a nice meal, you can have a bath and get into bed"

"Where is Mr. Abaza?"

"Oh he is on holiday on his yacht round the Greek Islands, but you will meet his daughter this evening"

"Doesn't he bring her on holiday?"

"Well no not in school time"

"Who was teaching her before I came"

"Well because of the war in Iraq he came to live at his house in England but he wanted her to be homeschooled"

"Does she know any English?"

"Well she uses this program online that teachers her it and she is getting better. He doesn't like the idea of her learning in a classroom of several children that's all. Her mother died when she was a baby and so she is in his care now"

"I understand"

After dinner, I met Abal she seemed quite a sad little child.

"Hello" I greeted her.

"You're my tutor?" she asked.

"That's right. I am missing daddy"

"Oh well Daddy loves you," I told her.

"When will he home he is always going away?" she wept.

"Tell her he is coming home next week" Miss. Fine whispered in my ear.

"He is coming home next week"

"Oh that's good, he has been away for two weeks already" she lightened up.

When Abal was missing her parents it reminded me of when Juliana used to say how her parents just literally abandoned her, that made my eyes feel a little tearful.

When Mohammad did arrive home he came in his helicopter landed in the garden. I went to greet him.

"Hello, I am Miss. Mary your daughter's tutor" I told him.

"That's right," he said miserably looking disgusted.

"Mary is my surname by the way, extremely unusual but how was your trip anyway?"

"It was good"

I didn't feel particularly comfortable around him but I had only just met him.

We spent a night drinking wine in the garden one night and I got to know him a bit better. He didn't seem that bad after all.

"You are very pretty and you realize that" he told me.

"Why thank you sir"

"No sir is too formal, just Mohammad will do".

Chapter 6

I woke up to the smell of burning one night and it was coming from Mohammad's room.

Luckily he had not locked his door and I got the water by the side of his bed trying to put out the flames I knew it wouldn't do it so I got the plant pot with flowers in it and I tipped all the water from that onto the flames.

Mohammad then ripped the curtain down and tried to get rid of the flames with that. Finally the fire died down and he thanked me for saving his life.

"Oh Milan, how can I thank you" he said and pulled me close for a hug.

"Oh your very welcome" I cried.

From then on I felt like we were falling in love, he was ten years older than me but that didn't matter.

But he had another woman in his life, he once held a ball and there was this woman named Margaret Fitzcharles-Cholmondley who was a guest there.

"Milan I would like you to meet Antoinette" Mohammad introduced me to her.

"Hello Milan, what a nice name that's the city where I get all my clothes from. But I am Margaret and I am also known as Lady Margaret. My father's side of the family has lived at Hawbrook Castle in Lincolnshire since the 12th century when our ancestors came from Norman France. I am also related to royalty I am a descendant of one Charles II and his mistress Lucy Walter's illegitimate children and were also connected to the kings of Wessex "

"That's interesting"

"Yes but let's hear a bit about yourself, Milan. I bet your ancestors were peasants"

"Well I am a tutor to Mohammad's daughter"

"Oh that's such an interesting job," she said very sarcastically.

"I don't work, I am to beautiful for it and I spend most of my day sleeping in the bath soaking in rich oils that you wont have heard of. Well when I am not bathing I am usually playing Polo, I am even thinking about entering the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil with my horse Snowberry, I would like to go to London in 2012 but I think it's a bit too late. Anyway, then I come out in the evening and it's always a different dress every night. I mean who would wear the same clothes over and over again. Where did you get your dress from?"

"Well this is my best dress I have but I can t remember where I got it from"

"Oh I am sorry Miss. Cheap but I bet your clothes are mass produced in some sweatshop in China or somewhere. But I think you should go and find someone else to talk to. I have to talk to poor Mohammad now, so why don't you just go and find something while we have a little talk" she said.

I didn't like this Margaret she was so vain, snobby and just very spiteful. She had just had Botox, which you could tell by looking at her, her strawberry blonde hair was all curled about shoulder length and her teeth were so white they had obviously been bleached.

"Who is that lady?" asked Abal.

"She is a friend of your father," I told her.

Abal had lightened up lately and she told me "you have made my life so much happier, Miss. Mary".

We would often sit outside in the garden and I would teach her how to draw flowers.

"You know that lady Margaret is daddy going to marry her?" She asked.

"I don't think so," I told her not wanting to say the truth and what I really thought was going to happen.

But a few days later I received an email from my cousin Ellen Darcy-Fitzroy.

Dear Milan,

Our mother is currently at the Edward Jenner Private Hospital in Chelsea, London. She has suffered from a stroke due to the shock from Crawford's recent suicide.

Hope you could come and visit her.

Yours truly, Ellen Darcy Fitzroy

Chapter 7

I asked if it would be all right if I could go down to London for a few days and Mohammad was fine with it.

"I am sorry about your family," he told me.

It felt very strange because I hadn't seen any of the Darcy-Fitzroy's for years, they only had my email address that I was forced to give them when I was at boarding school but they never bothered to contact me at all.

But now my cousin Crawford had killed himself while his mother was now so ill that she was dying.

Before we went out to the hospital I unpacked my luggage back at Aunt Edwina's house in Buckinghamshire, which is where I would be staying.

Ellen said hello while Felicity just gave a little wave, when I walked through the door.

"Our mother has just suffered from a stroke. Crawford killed himself on June 28th, which was last month. What happened was Crawford got expelled from St. Martins in his final year of sixth form for being romantic with this girl in lesson time and I mean he went so far with her it was just so unbelievable. After he got expelled he had no grades or nothing to go to university to then get a job, he'd always dreamed of being a restaurant critic but he hadn't got the skills of a journalist which was needed. So he then went on a cruise that went around the entire round the world with money that he had sponged off mother, his girlfriend was also a passenger"

"Oh my goodness I did not know this"

"Anyway soon into their voyage his girlfriend left him because he was having affairs with a different woman every week. When he got home he sponged more money but this time from the bank for a Ferrari and a house in Monte Carlo, where he would gamble in the casinos there and then again he had all these girlfriends one after the next. But then he couldn't afford to pay off his debts he had to sell everything he owned, and then he rented a flat in London because he had no money. He was then very depressed and spent money on alcohol and drugs"

"Right"

"He was given therapy to stop drinking but as soon he finished he was back on alcohol again and he committed suicide last month. Then that shocked mother and she had a stroke," stammered Ellen.

When we went to the hospital in London there she was in bed with her face lopsided and she was wearing a Chinese nightdress.

"Hello, its me Milan Mary, your niece" I told her.

"Oh its you" she breathed heavily in a sighing fashion.

"Yes it is I"

"I know you but I can't picture you"

"Auburn hair, hazel eyes, freckles, petite" I told her.

"How old are you?"

"I am now twenty three, so my date of birth is the 6th of December 1986"

"You were my sister in law Marjorie's child. Margaret, I absolutely hated her born into a well to do family the Darcy-Fitzroy's who owned a diamond mine in South Africa where she grew up. But then she went to Oxford University as her family had done since the 1200s at the age of eighteen in September 1985, where she started talking to a man who was doing building work"

"Oh right"

"He was born on a council estate in Essex. He only had the qualifications to become a builder and it just happened as he was doing building work at Oxford University when he met your mother. They started seeing each other more often then at first friends but then actual love. Then she got pregnant when she was half way through studying Art so she had to leave without a degree. Then your father proposed to her when she was four months expectant and no one from her side of the family but my late husband came to the wedding. You arrived and one year later to celebrate their anniversary they went to Marrakech, but they never returned due to a plane crash"

"And after that you looked after me"

"Yes my husband persuaded me too. But he died when you were young and then I just could not cope" she sighed handing me an envelope.

"Open it" she instructed me.

The letter dated from May 9th 2003 read:

Dear Edwina Darcy-Fitzroy,

I invite your niece Milan Mary to come and live with me at my mansion in Bel Air, Los Angles. As you might know I have recently directed the billion-dollar blockbuster remake of Mary Poppins and maybe if Milan came to live me, she could go into the Movie industry herself.

Love, Martin Mary

"Why didn't you let me join him, then its seven years old this letter?"

"I told him you died in the poison gas leak at your school back in 1997 because in reality I wish you had" she screamed.

"Here I have some grapes" I gave her the grapes I had brought earlier.

"Oh don't say those grapes are economy and sought of grapes your father would have eaten" she sighed.

"No they are Waitrose, and they are from South Africa" I said truthfully.

"I don't believe you, I know what your like with your little lies, Milan" she said throwing the bag on the floor.

"Oh, will you please forgive me Aunt. That was many years ago and I will forgive you?"

"Milan Mary, I could never ever forgive you ever. Not even now, I will probably be gone by tomorrow but I could still never forgive you"

"Well I forgive you, Aunt Edwina. Goodbye now" I told her leaving the room. She then fell asleep.

True to her word she was dead by the next morning, I didn't know what to think.

Felicity and Ellen were very upset at the news.

"Oh Ellen, I have decided something" wept Felicity.

"Oh what is it dear sister?"

"I am going to Bhutan to become a Buddhist nun"

"Oh but why?"

"You don't understand, I recently converted and I am going to devote my life to something different. Oh Ellen, how I always wished I had you beautiful long fair hair and I wish I had your beauty" she yelled.

"Well if you want to do that then you go and be a Buddhist" Ellen cried.

"Fine, I will".

At the end of my stay Ellen said she was ever so sorry for what has happened throughout the years and that we should still keep in touch.

Chapter 8

When I got home Mohammad had left some red roses on my windowsill with a little note on it reading: Oh Milan I cannot live without you. Will you be my wife?

I immediately ran to him and said yes but I thought it was odd as I thought he loved Margaret Fitzcharles-Cholmondley.

"I will just tell you that Margaret has gone to compete in a Polo Championship over in the US before going to her house in Sri Lanka. We're not seeing each other anymore you know"

"Right"

"You Miss. Mary will be given orthodontic treatment and a new wardrobe"

"Thank you my teeth do need doing. My teacher Miss. Hawking who was a bitch named me Bugs Bunny after the cartoon character because she said I looked identically like him"

"Your beautiful, Milan and you know it. Your hair nice and auburn"

"Well when I was a baby it was bright red, by the time I was five it was more auburn and when I was fifteen it went brown. At twenty it almost grey so now I have to dye it"

"I don't care if you dye it. I am overweight, every little hair on me is almost white, and I am short only 5 ft 6 and going bald"

"Don't say bad things about yourself" I said, we then kissed.

For the wedding I brought a simple white tube dress with some white high heel shoes and a veil. It would take place in a registry office instead of the local 11th century church due to Mohammad's Muslim faith and then a little reception back in the garden. But there wouldn't be many guests as Mohammad's family are all over in Iraq and I don't really have any. I wasn't bothered at this at all.

But the day before the wedding I found my veil ripped which was very odd and annoying, as I had to get some new netting to sew it back together again. But who could have done it I thought?

But on the day of the wedding it was very exciting as every woman's wedding day is supposed to be the best day of her life.

Mohammad was dressed in a kilt as a sign for his passion of everything Scottish while Abal wore a lovely white dress with a cardigan.

"You look beautiful Miss. Mary," she told me.

"Well just call me Milan, now"

"How about mother or mummy?"

"We will have to see," I laughed.

Ralph the chauffer drove us in the Rolls Royce down to the registry office in a little picturesque village called Glentorm.

As soon as we were about to take our vows in the registry office a young half Arab half White looking man rushed in.

"Stop the wedding immediately" he called.

"What?" said the registrar.

"Hossam what on earth are you doing here?" Screamed Mohammad.

"You, have some explaining to do. You are legally and since June 28th 1994 married to Dina Al-Balawi"

"You have another wife?" I cried.

"Yes, I want to take you all back home to see my wife, Dina" Mohammad broke down into tears.

"Is the wedding cancelled?" asked the registrar with a confused look on her face.

"Well at least for the moment" said Mohammad.

"Is this my long lost mother, then daddy?" asked Abal.

"No sweetheart, your mummy was a world famous French actress," he told her.

"Come on Abal, Daddy is busy," I whispered to her.

We went back in the Rolls Royce to Whittington Manor and Mohammad took us right up to the old Medieval Turret and through the door there was this woman still in her nightwear, her unwashed nightly black hair all knotted on her shoulders and she had these blood red lips that turned into a creepy smile showing all her crooked black teeth.

"This is Dina" Mohammad stammered.

"Why is she up here?" I asked.

"She is mentally insane" he responded, and then Dina got a knife but her carer, Lilith Brixton managed to stop her.

"Sorry, Mohammad I had a few two many to drink that other night of the fire and so did I last night, I am trying to keep an eye on her" sighed Lilith.

"Its alright, Lilith. Now, Milan you and I need to go the garden for a private word"

We went down to the garden and he told the story.

"I grew up in a strict Muslim family in Iraq and my father wanted me to have an arranged marriage but he said it was best I that leave Iraq due to Political and War related trouble. He knew an Egyptian millionaire businessman who lived in New York with his wife who was descended from a Dutch Aristocratic family who had been there since the 17th century however she had converted to Islam when they married. His wife was mentally ill, she had a mentally disabled son but then she had a daughter Dina. I was told that Dina that had no history of mental illness but not long after we wed in 1994 the truth was revealed. I took her to live here in Scotland at our old Vacation home that Father had given me for residence. But she was acting very strange she would apply make up to look like an innocent little doll at times then other times she would try and look like a vampire. She would sometimes prick her finger several times then put the blood on her face to make it look like a wound while drinking from a wine glass filled with cows blood"

"How strange"

"She tried to kill me several times so I left her back here with a nurse while I would spend my travelling the world, including France which is where I met Abal's mother who was the world famous Actress Anna Pierre. I could be Abal's father, people say she looks very much like an Arab but we have never had DNA tests to prove it"

"Wasn't Anna Pierre the actress who died of a drug overdose at her apartment in Paris?"

"That's right, she was a very pretty woman and my girlfriend"

"Anyway, why did you come back to Scotland?"

"Because you came to tutor my daughter, I thought that you should get to know me and I loved you"

"I loved you too but I don't trust you know. You lied to me you did and now you make me feel so unsafe with that psychotic lunatic around. You should send her somewhere, where she can get help for her illness. I am leaving, goodbye Mohammad," I shouted.

"Goodbye, Milan" he wept.

Chapter 9

I immediately changed back into my day dress and left immediately. I walked as far away from Whittington as quickly as possible I trudged for miles through the Scottish countryside and found a pine little tree to sleep under for the night. I didn't care if I woke up or not; I wasn't wanted on this earth after all.

One day this young man with dreadlocks woke me up in a strange bed.

"Where am I?" I asked.

"What's your name?" he asked.

"I am Milan Mary," I said realizing that I had lost my memory.

"So Milan Mary can you remember what you looked like

"My hair was Auburnish, I had hazel eyes, I had an overbite and I was very small," I said trying to remember, I was then given a mirror and I had got my appearance right.

"What country and town were you from?"

"I was born in Buckinghamshire, England"

"What was your family like?"

"My mother was South African, her grandparents were mostly English, but one of them was Dutch. My father was from Essex. There was quite a class divide in my family my mother was upper middle class. However my father was from Essex and had a tough upbringing on a council estate. They both had me when they were twenty however they died one year later in a plane crash. I was then put in the care of my Aunt who abused me and so did my cousins"

"What were your hobbies and interests?"

"I quite liked painting and looking at work by other artists, my favorite artist had to be Michelangelo. I used to be quite interested in History, Geography and Science ever since I was a child. Music wise I liked classical music such as Vivaldi particularly four Seasons and also Beethoven was a favorite. My favorite writer was Shakespeare and I used to like any adaptation of his works. My favorite film of all time had to be the 1995 version of Richard III"

"I think your getting your memory back. I am Angus McDonald, peace out" said the man throwing a piece sign.

"I am Milan Mary and I must have lost my memory"

"You did. Well Milan I had to just got back from the Hippies Unite Festival when in my van I saw a beautiful young woman so frail looking just lying there I decided to pick her up as soon as possible and take her back home. But you're now in Avoch, which is still in Scotland and still in the Highlands. Then you lost your memory and I have helped you get it back"

"Yes thank you, Angus. Oh I ran away from my last home, I had some problems"

"Oh well we all have problems. The world has a few problems, Global Warming, Nuclear Weapons, War just to name a few"

"Peace man, I am Ariel. What's your name?" said a young woman dressed wearing a tie-dye dress with a flowery band round her head.

"I am Milan Mary, Ariel"

"You can stay with us long as you want" Angus told me.

Ariel and Angus also had another sister Casey, they were all friendly hippies and they even persuaded me to become a vegan, which I did do in the end.

I got a job teaching at the local girls state primary school; boys went to a different building across the road. The pupils all loved me to bits.

One day I got a letter saying my Uncle in Bel Air had died thus I had received quite a bit of money as inheritance.

"What will you do with the money?" Angus asked when I told him.

"Well I am not quite sure"

"Ariel and Casey along with I have been planning for years to go to Katmandu in Nepal for years. We have decided finally now that we will go and would you care to join us?"

"Well I would think about it first, but it is an idea"

"We could all learn to speak Nepali and you could teach the local children there. Its perfect for Buddhists there because we are Buddhists, would you like to convert?"

"Well I was christened in the Church of England as a babe but I don't attend church currently. I have read a little bit about Buddhism but I would like to find out more so then I could make up my mind"

I thought through the idea of going to Nepal and becoming a Buddhist but then I thought it wouldn't be my sort of lifestyle.

I did a portrait of Angus, Ariel and Casey and the moment I'd finished he told his sisters to get out the room.

He then pulled me close for a hug.

"I love you, Milan" he told me gently while stroking my hair.

"I am sorry but I would rather just stay friends"

"You don't love me, does this mean you don't want to come to Katmandu"

"I am sorry but sadly not. I can make my own choices but you go to Katmandu as you wish, Angus. We can still be friends but not lovers"

"I understand"

"I am leaving tonight, goodbye" I announced my decision.

I decided that I would move on from the McDonalds and find my search for a home once again. I decided I would return to Whittington and to the man I loved.

But when I got a taxi to Whittington all I saw was the house was in ruins it looked like a blown up castle from the English Civil War. But I knew it was not from over 360 years ago because it wasn't ruined at all when I last visited.

Stand there was the chauffer Ajay.

"Ajay, what happened?"

"How did you know my name, Miss?"

"I used to work here, I was a tutor to Abal Pierre who was cared for by Mr. Mohammad Abaza"

"Oh yes I remember you know. Do you mean the late Mr. Abaza?"

"He is dead"

"Mohammad's father is, yes"

"But not Mohammad"

"Oh no, he is now living safe and sound in great comfort at his holiday home in French Polynesia. He is blind and has lost a hand though"

"How come?"

"Well almost a year ago now, one night there was a smell of smoke coming from somewhere. We all awoke to it but before we could call the fire brigade the house was going up in flames and there was Dina his wife going at the top of her voice like a banshee "I set fire to this house, I will see you in the land of the dead". She ran all the way up to the turret with the terrace that you can sit outside on and jumped over the wall. Lilith Brixton tried to call an ambulance but when the ambulance arrived she was already dead"

"I'd have to fly out to Polynesia if I wanted to see him, I have the money"

"I think he would like that very much"

Chapter 10

I flew out to Polynesia as quickly as I could and when I arrived at Mohammad's house there he was lying in a pair of swimming trunks in the sun.

"It is me, Milan Mary," I told him.

"Oh Milan I thought you had abandoned me, I thought we had fallen out of love long ago"

"Well it's a long story but I do love you"

"Dina died"

"I know and Whittington set fire, where will you live now?"

"I will just spend my time travelling around, I suppose. But I want to spend a bit of time here at the moment"

"Right"

"I have a villa in Greece, an apartment in New York, a house in the Bahamas and here is my French Polynesian home," he told me.

"They all sound lovely"

Mohammad and I fell in love once again, we were married and nine months later we had our first child, a son called Richard-Amir. Mohammad also got his sight back; we went to see a world famous eye surgeon Kurt Van Helsing.

We decided that we would spend winters in the Bahamas, spring in Greece, summer in French Polynesia and autumn in New York.

I became Abal's new adoptive mother meaning that she was not my stepdaughter but my real daughter through adoption. We sent her to a boarding school in England but she would come and see us every school holiday.

It was Christmas 2012 and we were in the Bahamas, I then got a phone call from Ellen Darcy-Fitzroy asking if we would like to spend Christmas together. We had sent each other a Christmas card but when she phoned, I suggested that she come out and visit us.

"Your flight will be paid for by us," I told her.

"Both ways?"

"Yes, you can come out on December 23rd and stay as long as you like?"

"I think I might come out on December 23rd and go back home on January 4th, if that's alright"

"Sure, it's our first Christmas together as a family. We never really celebrated it last year due to Mohammad's Muslim faith but now we have Richard-Amir, he said that maybe this year it would be nice for the children to celebrate it so they have some presents"

"I saw the picture of Richard-Amir on facebook he looks so sweet, and a picture of Abal. Two wonderful children they are, I remember you saying when Richard-Amir was born back in April"

"Bye now I have to go and wake up Richard-Amir from his nap, see you at Christmas"

"Bye"

I couldn't believe it that my cousin who bullied me as a child was now a friend of mine and we would be celebrated Christmas together.

I always used to think that only in Fairy Tales you could live happily ever after but well perhaps in real life you can too just like I did.

The End


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